The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'Yes, Mr President.'
***
The executions were at noon on Saturday, six days after the bomb exploded. The
people gathered, Ghosn and Qati were led out into the market square. They were
given time to pray. It was a first for Jack, being a spectator at something like
this. Murray just stood, his face set. Clark and Chavez, along with a gaggle of
security personnel, were mainly watching the crowd.
'It just seems so inconsequential,' Ryan said as the event got underway.
'It is not! The world will learn from this,' Prince Ali said solemnly. 'Many
will learn. This is justice happening. That is the lesson.'
'Some lesson.' Ryan turned to look at his companions atop the building. He'd had
time to reflect, and all he saw was – what? Ryan didn't know. He'd done his job,
but what had it all meant? 'The deaths of sixty thousand people who never should
have died put an end to wars that need never have been? Is that how history is
made, Ali?'
'All men die, Jack. Insh-Allah, never again in numbers so great. You stopped it,
you prevented something worse. What you did, my friend . . . the blessings of
God go with you.'
'I would have confirmed the launch order,' Avi said, his voice uncomfortable in
its frankness. 'And then? I would have blown my brains out, perhaps? Who can
say? Of this I am certain: I would not have had the courage to say no.'
'Nor I,' Golovko said.
Ryan said nothing as he looked back down at the square. He'd missed the first
one, but that was all right.
Even though Qati knew it was coming, it didn't matter. As with so many things in
life, it was all controlled by reflex. A soldier prodded his side with a sword,
barely enough to break the skin. Instantly, Qati's back arched, his neck
extended itself in an involuntary flinch. The captain of the Saudi Special
Forces already had his sword moving. He must have practiced, Jack realized a
moment later, because the head was removed with a single stroke as deceptively
powerful as a ballet master's. Qati's head landed a meter or so away, and then
the body flopped down, blood spraying from the severed vessels. He could see the
arms and legs tightening against the restraints, but that, too, was mere reflex.
The blood pumped out in a steady rhythm as Qati's heart continued to work,
striving to preserve a life already departed. Finally, that, too, stopped, and
all that was left of Qati were separated parts and a dark stain on the ground.
The Saudi captain wiped the sword clean on what looked like a bolt of silk,
replaced it in the golden scabbard, and walked into a path the crowd made for
him.
The crowd did not exult. in fact, there was no noise at all. Perhaps a
collective intake of breath, a few murmured prayers from the more devout among
those present; for whose souls the prayers were offered only they and their God
could say. At once, those in the front row began to depart. A few from inside
the crowd who'd been denied a view came to the fence line, but they stayed there
for only a moment before going about their business. After the prescribed
interval, the body parts would be collected and given a proper burial in
accordance with the religion that each of them had defiled.